Government today said there is a noticeable decline in below poverty line population in the country between 2004 and 2012.

As per poverty estimates released by the Planning Commission, the percentage of population below poverty line in urban areas has declined from 25.5 per cent in 2004-05 to 13.7 per cent 2011-12, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Girija Vyas informed Lok Sabha in a written reply.There were total 531.20 lakh people below poverty line in the country as per the 2011-12 data, she added.

The Ministry has been implementing Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana, a centrally sponsored scheme, through state governments.

The scheme aimed at providing gainful employment to the urban unemployed and under-employed poor by encouraging setting up of self employment ventures by urban poor, skills training and through providing wage employment by utilising

their labour for construction of socially and economically useful public assets.